Hackescher Markt Berlin: Graffiti Alley, Höfe and Hours

Hackescher Markt is a square in Berlin’s Mitte district, one S-Bahn stop east of Friedrichstraße and a five-minute walk from Alexanderplatz, and the two places people actually come for face each other across Rosenthaler Straße. At number 39 stands Haus Schwarzenberg, a deliberately unrestored building whose courtyard is covered from the bins to the roofline in street art. At number 40 begin the Hackesche Höfe, eight linked courtyards restored in the 1990s and filled with shops, a cinema and a variety theatre. The square itself never closes. The courtyards, museums and market on it all keep different hours, and that is where most half-day plans go wrong.

I first came here with my friend Adam from Travels of Adam while I was staying in Berlin, Germany for a week. The area around the station is touristy, and the S-Bahn station itself is still worth a minute for its orange brickwork and steel arches. What Adam actually brought me for was the alley, which I had walked past on earlier trips without ever noticing it.

Hackescher Markt opening hours

Hackescher Markt is public space, so the square and the street-art courtyard are open at any hour and cost nothing. What needs checking before you go are the hours of the market, the restored courtyards and the four small museums and galleries inside Haus Schwarzenberg. The current times are listed below.

Individual shops inside the Hackesche Höfe set their own hours within that 9am to 10pm window, and the Chamäleon Theater and the Hackesche Höfe Kino run to their own programmes rather than to shop hours. If you want the market, come on a Thursday or a Saturday; produce mostly comes in from Brandenburg, and there are cheese, fish and prepared-food stalls alongside it.

The graffiti alley at Hackescher Markt

The graffiti alley at Hackescher Markt is the courtyard of Haus Schwarzenberg at Rosenthaler Straße 39, about 80 metres (262 feet) from the S-Bahn station. Its entrance is a dark, narrow passage at the start of Rosenthaler Straße next to Café Cinema, and it is easy to walk straight past. Go through it and you come out in a courtyard whose walls carry full-height works rather than tags.

The art changes. Pieces get painted over, so what is on the walls now may well be gone by the time you come back to Berlin in a year or two, and that is the point of the place rather than a fault in it. Haus Schwarzenberg is run by the artists’ association Schwarzenberg e.V., which has kept the building in its pre-restoration state on purpose while the rest of the block around it was smartened up.

Timing matters more here than at any other Berlin street-art spot. In the afternoon the courtyard fills up, especially in summer when the café terraces are busy, and you end up photographing other people’s backs. Turn up early in the morning and you will have the whole alley to yourself.

If you want proper photos of yourself in Berlin rather than the arm’s-length kind, this courtyard is a good backdrop, and it is where I did my own shoot with a local photographer.

What is inside Haus Schwarzenberg

Haus Schwarzenberg holds six things worth knowing about besides the street art, and two of them are museums. They are listed below, most useful first.

1. Museum Otto Weidt’s Workshop for the Blind: the preserved workshop where Otto Weidt employed blind and deaf Jewish Berliners and hid several of them from deportation. It sits in the first courtyard, left-hand entrance, and admission is free.
2. Anne Frank Zentrum: the German partner organisation of the Anne Frank House, with the permanent exhibition “All About Anne” in the same building. Adults pay €8 ($9, £7).
3. neurotitan gallery and shop: a gallery and a shop for zines, small-press comics, prints and records, open Monday to Saturday.
4. Monsterkabinett: a basement of mechanical monsters built by the artist collective Dead Chickens, shown as a guided 25-minute performance rather than a walk-through, running roughly hourly on show evenings.
5. Kino Central: a small independent cinema in the same courtyard complex.
6. Eschschloraque Rümschrümp: a long-running artists’ bar with concerts, DJ nights and an interior that fits the building.

The Hackesche Höfe across the street

The Hackesche Höfe are eight interconnected courtyards at Rosenthaler Straße 40 and Sophienstraße 6, and they are the opposite of Haus Schwarzenberg in almost every way. The complex opened on 23 September 1906, was built by the architect Kurt Berndt as the largest joined courtyard development in Germany, and has been a listed building since 1972. Courtyard 1 carries an Art Nouveau facade of glazed tiles by August Endell, who designed it knowing it would never be seen from the street.

Restoration ran from 1993 and turned the complex into what it is now: shops, restaurants, the Hackesche Höfe Kino and the Chamäleon Theater, which stages contemporary circus. Walking all eight courtyards takes about 20 minutes if you do not stop, and the sequence is deliberate, with the cultural venues at the front and what were rental flats at the back.

One thing to expect in 2026: the complex is in the middle of facade and roof works, so there is scaffolding on the entrance building and access inside Courtyard 1 is restricted. The Endell tilework is the part most affected, so if that is why you are coming, check the Hackesche Höfe website before you make the trip.

How to get to Hackescher Markt and how long to allow

Take the S-Bahn to Hackescher Markt station, which is served by lines S3, S5, S7 and S9 and puts you on the square itself. Four tram lines stop outside the station as well, two of them through the night, and the walk from Alexanderplatz takes under ten minutes. The station opened in 1882 and is one of only two stations on Berlin’s Stadtbahn viaduct still standing in something close to its original state, which is why it photographs so well from the square.

Allow one to two hours if you only want the two sets of courtyards and the street art. Allow half a day if you add the Otto Weidt museum and the Anne Frank Zentrum, and a full evening on top if you are going to the Monsterkabinett or the Chamäleon. Coming to Berlin from elsewhere in Germany is usually quickest by rail, and you can compare German train fares and times before you commit to a date.

Where to stay around Hackescher Markt

Staying in this part of Mitte puts you inside walking distance of the courtyards, Museum Island and Alexanderplatz, which is why rooms here cost more than the same room two U-Bahn stops out. Three places sit close enough to walk, and one budget option is worth the tram ride.

Closest: Casa Camper Berlin. Casa Camper is at Weinmeisterstraße 1, roughly 400 metres (1,312 feet) from the square and up the street from the graffiti alley. Rooms are plain but well lit, with big windows and walk-in showers, and guests get the sauna and fitness room around the clock plus the Tentempié rooftop lounge for drinks and snacks. Check dates for Casa Camper Berlin.

By the river: Radisson Collection Hotel, Berlin. This is the hotel on Karl-Liebknecht-Straße opposite the Berliner Dom, a short walk from Hackescher Markt. It reopened in February 2025 after two years shut, following the collapse of the AquaDom aquarium that used to stand in its lobby. The aquarium has not been rebuilt; a 24-metre (78.7-foot) planted “Living Tree” installation stands in its place. Rooms are large and air-conditioned, and there is a pool, a gym and a sauna. Check dates for the Radisson Collection Hotel.

Apartment style: Flower’s Berlin by Limehome. The studios formerly sold as Flower’s Boardinghouse Mitte are now run by Limehome at Mulackstraße 1, about a seven-minute walk north of the square. They are self-contained studios with kitchenettes and digital check-in rather than a staffed reception, which suits a stay of several nights. Check dates for Flower’s Berlin.

Budget: EastSeven Berlin Hostel. EastSeven is at Schwedter Straße 7 in Prenzlauer Berg, so it is a tram or a 25-minute walk from Hackescher Markt rather than a doorstep option. Dormitories are simple, bathrooms are shared and cleaned several times a day, and the draw is the terraced garden with a barbecue and the 24-hour guest kitchen. Check dates for EastSeven Berlin Hostel.

I spent a week here in a rented apartment rather than a hotel room, and for anything longer than three nights I would do it again. Somebody let me in when I arrived late, the heating in the living room failed on the first night and was fixed the next day even though I reported it on a Sunday evening, and I could work at a table, eat breakfast slowly and raid the fridge at midnight. For a longer stay, browse hotels and apartments across Germany, and if you want whole flats rather than rooms, check what is listed on Vrbo as well, where the selection of apartments is usually wider.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

Four things are worth knowing before you go, and the first one is the difference between a good visit and a crowded one.

1. Come before 10am for the street art. The alley is a courtyard with café terraces in it, and from early afternoon in summer you are photographing over other people’s shoulders. Early morning, it is empty.
2. Look for the dark passage, not a sign. The entrance to Haus Schwarzenberg is an unlit gap next to Café Cinema at the start of Rosenthaler Straße, and the natural thing to do is walk past it. The bright, restored gateway a few doors along at number 40 is the Hackesche Höfe, which is a different place.
3. Book nothing for the Monsterkabinett unless there are ten of you. It runs as a timed 25-minute guided show on evenings from Wednesday to Saturday, and groups under ten are told to turn up on the night. Groups of ten or more have to reserve.
4. Expect scaffolding at the Hackesche Höfe in 2026. Facade and roof work is under way and Courtyard 1, the one with the Endell tiles, has restricted access. The other seven courtyards are open as normal.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from the week she spent in Berlin’s Mitte district photographing the Haus Schwarzenberg street-art courtyard and the Hackesche Höfe. The team covers Berlin and the rest of Germany for independent travellers, including the hotels, apartments and small museums around Hackescher Markt worth booking, and updates this page when prices, opening hours and building works change.